Movie Review - French Exit

Azazel Jacobs is a filmmaker who makes small, intimate films. Often his comedy or sense of humor is low-key or subtle, as well as being a bit awkward or quirky. It wasn't his first film but the film that put him on my and most critics' radar was Momma's Man (2008), a New York film about a man who moves back home to live with his parents and has a relationship that's perhaps co-dependent where he can't really let go or leave them. His previous film though was The Lovers (2017), which focused on a middle-aged couple rediscovering their passion and love for one another. This film continues or incorporates the themes and ideas that Jacobs was juggling in those previous works.

Michelle Pfeiffer (One Fine Day and The Fabulous Baker Boys) stars as Frances Price, a wealthy widow who learns she's no longer wealthy. In the seven years since her husband died, her finances have not been managed well or at all. It's presumed that her husband didn't leave her in the best situation any way. She didn't bother to come up with a plan. She says that her plan was basically to die before the money ran out. Given that she's not that old and seems to be in good health, it's not clear if she meant that once the money dried up, she would commit suicide. Her financial advisor tells her to sell her home and remaining assets, which she does. Her best friend tells her to stay at her apartment in Paris, France, which she also does.

Lucas Hedges (Ben Is Back and Boy Erased) co-stars as Malcolm Price, the son of Frances and her one and only child. It's not sure if he's in college or what he does at all, but he is engaged to be married to a young woman named Susan, played by Imogen Poots (The Father and Green Room). She wants him to tell his mother that they're engaged to be married, but he won't do it. When his mother tells him that they're moving to Paris, he's unwilling to leave Frances' side and stay in New York for Susan. Like the character in Jacob's 2008 film, Malcolm is too much of a "momma's boy." This is mainly because his father, even before his death, was a rather disengaged parent. He is perhaps unable to separate from his mother because she was the opposite and is particularly loving toward him, even though she can be cold and vicious to others.

That's where a lot of the comedy in this film derives. It comes from Frances' cold and vicious nature to certain people. She's less vicious as she is cold. She can be really cold to certain people. She says that she's simply not at a point where she wants to make friends, so we see her have very cynical encounters, as the humor of the film is very sardonic, as she does come across as someone who's life is about to end either naturally or by her own hand. She's not like Ricky Gervais in After Life (2019), but it feels in that same vibe. Frances would just soon not interact with people.

Yet, she does and it's not sure why or what she's waiting for. She could just end her life and leave whatever money is left to her son, but she has this thing where she's just giving money away or spending it recklessly until it's all gone. Her trajectory is to leave without any explanation and without leaving anything to her son. No inheritance for him, it would seem. Apparently, life without her husband is too much for her to bear, but the ending of the film brings them to some kind of catharsis, so I'm not sure why it ends the way it does.

There are some funny bits in here like Frances setting a restaurant table on fire or a piece of meat in a freezer that's surprising. Yet, there are some bits that are confusing. One scene toward the beginning with a homeless man seems to be about the dignity of homeless people, but a scene toward the end seems to undercut or undermine that dignity. The last third of the film involves a comedic bit where all of a sudden all these people crowd into a small apartment and all end up staying there, but with no explanation as to why, except for the comedy of having a bunch of random people all be in an apartment together. There's also a supernatural element involving a candle that makes the whole thing silly in a way that was out-of-step with how the rest of the film is.

Finally, I have to point out that this film perhaps would've worked better if I hadn't seen Let Them All Talk (2020). That Steven Soderbergh directed film is about a mother and son who take a cruise ship from New York across the Atlantic. That film ends with the mother's death. Before which, the mother is very cynical and cold, a bit of an ice queen like Pfeiffer's character here. I didn't mention it, but the way Frances and Malcolm get from New York to Paris is by a cruise ship. That sequence doesn't consume the entire film, as it does in Let Them All Talk, but it's a significant sequence and given that both films end with the mother's death, supposedly, I couldn't help but think of that Soderbergh film and how much better it was in its comedy and cohesion.

Rated R for language and sexual references.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.

In theaters.